Las Vegas gunman's girlfriend arrives in Los Angeles from Philippines
Danley, an Australian citizen reported to have been born in the Philippines, had been sharing Paddock’s condo
October 04, 2017
LAS VEGAS: The girlfriend of a retiree who killed 58 people and then himself in a shooting rampage in Las Vegas arrived from the Philippines in Los Angeles, where FBI agents hoped to question her about the massacre, law enforcement officials said.
Marilou Danley, who US authorities have described as a "person of interest" in the investigation, left Manila on Tuesday evening aboard Philippine Airlines Flight PR 102, according to Philippines immigration spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang.
The non-stop flight arrived as scheduled at about 7:30 pm local time on Tuesday (0230 GMT Wednesday) at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to the airline tracking website FlightAware.com and passengers from the flight.
Mangrobang told Reuters by text message there was no information about whether Danley was traveling with anyone else.
A police official in Manila and a law enforcement official in the United States, both speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Danley left the Philippines unescorted but was being met by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in Los Angeles.
The US source said Danley was not under arrest but that the FBI hoped she would consent to be interviewed voluntarily.
The police official in Manila said Danley's trip back to the United States "was coordinated with FBI authorities" and that she was returning to clear her name of any involvement in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
Stephen Paddock, her live-in companion who killed himself moments before police stormed the Las Vegas hotel suite he had transformed into a sniper's nest on Sunday night, left no clear clues about why he staged his attack on an outdoor concert below the high-rise building.
Law enforcement authorities are hoping to obtain some answers from Danley, who according to public records and police shared Paddock's condo in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Las Vegas.
The Philippine police official said authorities in Manila were told that Paddock used identification belonging to Danley, who has an Australian passport, when checking in to the Las Vegas hotel.
Investigators are also examining a $100,000 wire transfer that Paddock sent to an account in the Philippines that appeared to be intended for Danley, a senior US homeland security official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The official, who has been briefed regularly on the probe but spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators were working on the assumption that the money was intended as a form of life insurance payment to Danley.
The official said US authorities were eager to question Danley about whether Paddock encouraged her to leave the United States before going on his rampage.
Danley arrived in Manila on Sept. 15, more than two weeks before the mass shooting in Las Vegas, then flew to Hong Kong on Sept. 22 and returned in Manila on Sept. 25. She was there until she flew to LAX on Tuesday night, according to a Philippine immigration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Danley, an Australian citizen aged 62 who is reported to have been born in the Philippines, was not seen by reporters in any public area of the LAX arrival terminal.
A flight attendant from the plane declined to comment, as did an airline manager at the terminal, citing privacy concerns, when asked if they had seen Danley. One passenger told Reuters she overheard members of the flight crew saying that one of them had escorted Danley from the plane.
The New York Times reported Danley has a daughter who lives in Los Angeles.
Arsenal recovered
Fresh details about the massacre and the arsenal Paddock amassed emerged on Tuesday.
Police said Paddock strafed the concert crowd with bullets for nine to 11 minutes before taking his own life, and had set up cameras inside and outside his hotel suite so he could see police as they closed in on his location.
A total of 47 firearms were recovered from three locations searched by investigators - Paddock’s hotel suite, his home in Mesquite, and another property associated with him in Reno, Nevada, according to Jill Snyder, special agent for the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF).
Snyder said 12 of the guns found in the hotel room were fitted with so-called bump-stock devices that allow the guns to be fired virtually as automatic weapons. The devices are legal under US law, even though fully automatic weapons are for the most part banned.
The rifles, shotguns and pistols were purchased in four states - Nevada, Utah, California and Texas - Snyder told reporters at an evening news conference.
A search of Paddock’s car turned up a supply of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be formed into explosives and was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal office building that killed 168 people, Lombardo said earlier.
Police also confirmed that photos widely published online showing the gunman’s body, his hands in gloves, lying on the floor beside two firearms and spent shell casings, were authentic crime-scene images obtained by media outlets. An internal investigation was under way to determine how they were leaked.
Video footage of the shooting spree on Sunday night caught by those on the ground showed throngs of people screaming in horror, some crouching in the open for cover, hemmed in by fellow concert-goers, and others running for cover as extended bursts of gunfire rained onto the crowd of some 20,000.
Police had put the death toll at 59 earlier on Tuesday, not including the gunman. However, the coroner’s office revised the confirmed tally to 58 dead, plus Paddock, on Tuesday night.
More than 500 people were injured, some trampled in the pandemonium. At least 20 of the survivors admitted to one of several hospitals in the area, University Medical Center, remained in critical condition on Tuesday, doctors said.
The union representing firefighters disclosed that a dozen off-duty firefighters who were attending the music festival were shot while trying to render aid to other spectators, two of them while performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on victims.
“This is a true feat of heroism on their part,” said Ray Rahne of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
What drove gunman?
But the central, unanswered question to the bloodshed was what drove the gunman’s actions.
Federal, state and local investigators have found no evidence that Paddock had even incidental contacts with foreign or domestic extremist groups, and reviews of his history showed no underlying pattern of criminal behavior or hate speech, the homeland security official said.
While investigators had not ruled out the possibility of mental illness or some form of brain injury, “there’s no evidence of that, either,” the official said.
Paddock’s brother, Eric, has said he was mystified by the attack.
“It just makes less sense the more we use any kind of reason to figure it out,” Eric Paddock said in a text message on Tuesday. “I will bet any amount of money that they will not find any link to anything ... he did this completely by himself.”
He said the family did not plan to hold a funeral for his brother, who was not religious, saying it could attract unwanted attention. He described his brother as a financially well-off enthusiast of video poker and cruises, with no history of mental health issues.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Paddock had been “a sick man, a demented man.”
Gun debate stirred
The attack stirred the fractious debate about gun ownership in the United States, which is protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and about how much that right should be subject to controls.
Sunday’s shooting followed the massacre of 26 young children and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, and the slaying of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando last year.
The latter attack was previously the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
Democrats reiterated what is generally the party’s stance, that legislative action is needed to reduce mass shootings. Republicans, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress, argue restrictions on lawful gun ownership cannot deter criminal behavior.
“We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by,” said Trump, who strongly supported gun rights during his presidential campaign.
Paddock seemed unlike the troubled, angry young men who experts said have come to embody the mass-shooter profile in the United States.
Public records on Paddock point to an itinerant existence across the U.S. West and Southeast, including stints as an apartment manager and aerospace industry worker. He appeared to be settling in to a quiet life when he bought a home in a Nevada retirement community a few years ago.
